Critical Infrastructure Protection from a National Perspective

Abstract

This article addresses conceptional components of national strategies on critical infrastructure protection (CIP). In particular, it focuses on the Swiss CIP programme and its strategic components. As in other countries, Switzerland divides its national infrastructure into critical sectors, but rather distinctively it subdivides them into critical subsectors and even lists specific critical infrastructure objects in a classified inventory. The article stresses the importance of a pragmatic public private partnership in further strengthening the CI's resiliency, but also argues for a more explicit legal foundation to provide some clearer guidelines in this evolving field of collaboration.